Reflections: Gambit Vs Xavier
by xjunaidx
Summary: As some may know Gambit is immune to telepaths such as Xavier. Xavier's secrets are unfortunately revealed when he stubbornly attempts to enter Gambit's mind anyway. Tragedy ensues.
1. Chapter 1: Backfire

Reflections: Gambit Vs Xavier

Chapter 1: Backfire

Gambit rests on a therapist's couch, with Xavier sitting besides him. Though sitting, Xavier's presence dominates the room as it usually does.

Xavier: "Gambit, as you know you appear to be immune to telepaths. Even I have so far been unable to penetrate your mind."

Gambit: "Yeah well no body steals Gambit's thoughts."

Xavier: "However, I have never attempted to use my full psychic capabilities on you. I would like to do so today to judge if you can truly be a reliable countermeasure against hostile telepaths."

Gambit: "No problem, Gambit not scared a'nothin."

Xavier: "Good, well I was expecting to set up a future time to do this but if you are eager we can start today.

Gambit: "Go ahead."

Xavier: "Please close your eyes and calm your mind."

Gambit does as he is told. He hears a deep breadth from Xavier before he hears him say "Let us begin..."

An awkward period of time elapses as Gambit notices no change. He peaks through an eye to see Xavier with a slightly frustrated expression on his face. More time elapses and he begins to hear barely audible grunting. Xavier begins to audibly grip the arms of his wheel chair. His moans become louder and louder. Gambit lets out a yawn and suddenly finds himself no longer in Xavier's mansion.

He sees two boys in an isolated alley way filled with a plethora of junk. He doesn't know why but he knows facts about this scene that he has never seen before. He knows the small spindly eight year old boy is Xavier, and he knows the taller fatter boy is named George.

George: "Charles, I heard an interesting thing today from your brother."

Gambit is also able to read the child Xavier's thoughts. "Well looks like this isn't about trading baseball cards."

George: "He told me your one of those muteys."

"God damn it Cain, I didn't think you would be this much of a bastard to me."

Xavier starts to slowly back away from George but George grabs him by the shirt and pins him against the wall.

George: "Now I know why I made that terrible trade last week with you!"

Xavier: "What are you talking about that trade was fine, how could either of us know that card could be worth so much!" Gambit knew Xavier wasn't actually lying.

George: "Fuck you! He told me you can control peoples minds! You think you can just lie to my face too?"

Xavier could indeed control people's minds, but at this age he had extremely limited control over it, far from being able to control someone precisely enough to make a trade for a card. A part of Xavier knew though that he probably would have if he could.

George: "You know what my dad says about muteys?"

Xavier contemplates what to do and eyes a bicycle cut in half with jagged edges next to them, but George interrupts his thoughts with "They should all be BURNED."

George throws Xavier to the side of the alley, almost landing on the half-bicycle.

George stands over Xavier and seems to pause before doing anything.

Before George can decide on what to do, Xavier grabs the half-bycicle and swings it at George's face. To Xavier's slight surprise a red liquid starts pouring out of Georges head, as the bicycle penetrates his skull. Xavier though remains disturbingly calm. He begins to enter George's mind, as a just in case measure. It seems George was never going to do much to Xavier, he loved Xavier and it was the thought that Xavier could betray him that drove him to be so aggressive. His plan was just to scare Xavier, and if Xavier did something to him he would know that Xavier was indeed a mind manipulator. If Xavier let himself get beat up George would know he could trust Xavier again, he never really cared that he was a mutant he just wanted to be able to trust in his best friend again. Xavier though did not flinch after learning of George's true intentions. He attacked his mind, in a blunt undirected way. He didn't yet have the skill to simply wipe the last few moments away, all he could do was strike randomly and fiercely. He had done this once before to a kid named Alfred in his class who always outscored him, Alfred never outscored Xavier again, or anyone in the class.

Xavier walked away leaving George in a pool of his own blood, he was quite thankful that he didn't get any stains on his cloths.

The scene swirled and recomposed about a year into the future. A cop stood in front of Xavier and his father, questioning him about George. When the cop asked his father what Xavier was doing a year ago on the day of George's incident Xavier quickly implanted memories into his father's head, now much more skilled in his abilities than a year prior. However, before Gambit could learn more of this the scene dissipated in a cloud of smoke and he heard Xavier shouting "GET OUT OF MY MIND!"

Gambit was a thief, and the opportunity to steal thoughts for the first and possibly only time in his life was too good to pass up. He tried to search through his professor's mind looking for more emotionally intense memories. However, he was quickly stunned by the amount of violence he was seeing. Murder after murder flashed before him and it became too disturbing for even Gambit to continue. He could also feel Xavier clawing back control. Before he returned he wanted to see other people's thoughts. If Xavier's memories were this interesting what of the rest of his comrades. One by one Gambit searched through the minds of the current Xmen in the mansion for the one thing he cared about most, Gambit.

Cyclop's opinion seemed to be quite negative. It was along the lines of "Gambit's powers are too dangerous, he could destroy this entire planet for god's sake." "It's difficult to find a point for his existence on the team, he has comparatively pathetic combat capabilities and has almost zero utility."

Gambit moved onto Wolverine's mind. "What a pussy ass bitch. He's funny though."

Next was Jubilee, who he always felt he had a connection to. "Why does he always lose to Wolverine in duels?" "I feel so bad for him, I hope I don't end up like him when I grow up."

Rogue, the love of his life. "He is so cute, always getting into trouble. Whenever I save him its like saving a cute puppy. But how do I let him down and tell him I don't think of him like he thinks of me."

Storm wasn't too negative at least. Gambit couldn't find any thoughts or memories about himself, it seemed she had better things to think about than Gambit.

Nightcrawler was a nice guy surely he would have a pleasant perspective. "Gambit is the worst role model for the students here. He is lazy, and immoral he has even betrayed us before. Why does Xavier want him here?"

Nightcrawler brought up a good question, and this may be the only time Gambit would be able to to obtain the honest answer. He probed Xavier's mind and learned his opinion was roughly: "I can't let him fall into the enemies hands, his resistance to my mind alterations means he's one of the few people who can ruin my plans. Thankfully he is easy to manipulate even without special abilities."

Gambit had enough and he no longer wished to fight Xavier for control. He slipped back into his own mind.

Xavier: "What did you see in my mind?"

Gambit knew the best way to lie was to mix in some truth.

Gambit: "Just wanted to know what my pals thought of Gambit. Looks like Gambit's not very well liked."

Xavier breathed a sigh of relief, that did indeed seem like something Gambit would do but he would have to make sure at some later time. For now Xavier simply replied with "Well, are you surprised by this?"

Gambit lied again, "Na."


	2. Chapter 2: Hard Work

Several days had passed since the incident between Xavier and Gambit. Gambit just tried to ignore what he had learned of Xavier's past. He wasn't someone to judge or have tight morals anyway. Regardless, today was supposed to be a day of fun.

From time to time the Xmen would find an isolated incident of rogue sentinels. Although manufacturing of sentinels had for the most part been stopped, not all the backup warehouses of sentinels had been found. Every now and then a warehouse would be stumbled upon and accidentally activated. The Xmen would be called in for a sentinel hunt. The task grew into a competition. Whoever destroyed the most sentinels by the end of the extermination won. This time the participating members were: Rogue, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, and Gambit.

Gambit never put in much effort on these assignments, he had a hard time taking anything non-life-threatening seriously. Instead he looked at them as just a warm up. However, he couldn't help but want to improve the group's opinion of him and he thought this might be a good way to do so.

He dodged every blast, missile, bullet and giant fist sent his way. He ignited the tip of his pole to leap about the battlefield. Eventually he would be able to leap onto one their shoulders where he would ignite the tip of his pole to shatter their heads in an instant. Unfortunately, the cards he typically used weren't explosive enough to do much damage to heavy plated sentinels, instead he had to resort to melee strikes if he wanted to get any serious numbers up.

Gambit felt so proud. Usually he just flung a few cards here and their distracting them for the rest of the team, personally only taking down one or two. Already he had defeated four of them and it felt like it was just starting. Inflated by hubris he thought to take some time to see how everyone else was doing. They seemed to be really casual, just kind of walking around at this point. "Looks like Gambit's gonna get the a taste of Xavier's pie tonight" he said, not loud enough for anyone to hear. Xavier didn't cook much, but he had one amazing pie recipe. There was no sharing of Xavier's pie to promote competition and hard work, only the winner ever got to taste it. As Gambit finished fantasizing about pie he finally realized why everyone was so casual, all the sentinels were already defeated. "O'course" thought Gambit. "Rogue be flying through thay chests like butta, Cyclops beheading them just by given em a look, and Storm be lightning up the whole factory at once." He wondered why he even tried in the first place.

As they walked back to the black-bird all of them except Wolverine were engaged in some conversation. He couldn't hear much but he could tell it was about how Xavier's pie tasted. As Gambit got closer he was met with hostile faces.

"You can't learn about the pie if you haven't put in the effort to deserve a taste of it yourself!" said Storm. They shuffled ahead of him and Wolverine. Of course, Wolverine hadn't had a taste of the pie either. Gambit then understood he should be comparing himself with Wolverine not the other overpowered members. "So Logan how many you kill today?"

"More than you bub."

"Oh but Wolverine, Gambit actually put in some work today."

"Trust me, you don't wanna know."

"Gambit a grown man and-"

"Eight"

"For Fu-" Gambit stopped himself short and just walked back to the black bird in silence.


	3. Chapter 3: Deception Reception Inception

Gambit awoke in chains. He looked around his jail cell and recognized it as a holding area within the X-mansion. "Looks like Xavier didn't believe Gambit after all" he said aloud.

The shackles were strangely engineered to specifically hold Gambit. An inflexible mandible protruding from the ceiling held his wrists so that his hands were forced to face upwards. The idea seemed to be to prevent his hands from touching and igniting anything. At first Gambit didn't do anything like a good prisoner should. He slumped down and began thinking of what to say to the rest of the Xmen when they confronted him. Maybe there was no point, no matter what he said to his teammates Xavier could just manipulate them, only his opinion mattered. An hour went by before Gambit thought "This be gettin just too uncomfortable".

He looked at his shackles, they were fairly tight. He broken his own left hand so it would fold and slide through. He used his free left hand to not ignite the shackles themselves, but what connected them to the ceiling. With a small explosion he was mostly free, though the mandible was still attached to his right wrist. However, that wasn't much of an inconvenience. He blew up the lock on his jail cell and stepped out. No alarms rang. Gambit found that strange, he also found it strange there was a holding cell specifically designed for him already in the mansion. He assumed there must at least be a silent alarm or surveillance going off, surely the Xmen are alerted of his escape. He sprinted out exploding lock after lock, but he didn't encounter anyone. Once out of the holding facility he thought of his options. He needed to confront Xavier, but if he were to do so before defeating the other Xmen, Xavier could just mentally summon them with his powers. Instead Gambit's plan was to defeat each of them one by one hopefully with the element of surprise.

By force of habit Gambit always noticed the special nooks, vents, and connectors that could be used to travel through a building undetected, and after several years of living in the mansion he was quite confident that he could travel undetected freely. The first person on Gambit's list was Wolverine. He traveled through vents, rooftops and unoccupied rooms until he reached his destination: The Danger Room.

There was Wolverine alone at night battling for the sake battling like usual. He briefly stopped by the operating room before joining wolverine inside.

Gambit-"Lets have one more duel eh Wolverine?"

Wolverine smirked and exposed his claws before charging at Gambit.

The duel started out as all their duels started. With Wolverine charging at Gambit to get into melee range. The duels were usually fairly even but Wolverine's regeneration and inner armor meant he could take as many hits as he needed to until Gambit made a mistake and lost. This time though Gambit had a plan. Instead of trying to engage Wolverine in any sort of melee combat, he simply dashed away whenever Wolverine came close all the while spraying ignited cards Wolverine's way to slow him down. This routine persisted for exactly two minutes and thirty three seconds before Gambit simply jumped out of the danger room itself. The delayed-explosion card he placed on a switch in the operating room blew up and Gambit gave a smirk and a thumbs down toward Wolverine as the danger room emergency-locked with Wolverine still inside. He could hear Wolverine trying to claw his way through, but he knew it would be a long time before he succeeded. Afterwards he realized he could have just locked Wolverine from the operating room directly and avoided the entire duel. "Whatever".

Before he had time to think of his next step Nightcrawler appeared in front of him quite angry. Nightcrawler appeared to have a clear advantage as he kicked around Gambit from all angles while teleporting. Gambit was made to look as if he was trying to swat a fly, looking clumsier than he had ever. The longer the battle went on the more inelegant Gambit looked. He was moving progressively more slowly, missing Nightcrawler by ever larger margins. Gambit seemingly at the peak of his frustration ignited and threw his entire deck of cards toward Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler couldn't help but laugh as he easily teleported behind Gambit and elbowed him in the back of the head before teleporting away. He started laughing, as Gambit was literally all out of cards and collapsed on the floor but then Gambit started laughing too. Disturbed Nightcrawler became silent, giving him the opportunity to hear the familiar buzz of an item ignited. He looked all over his body for a glowing article of clothing but couldn't see anything. An explosion hit him from behind, as the card on the back of his belt exploded. Gambit got off the ground and walked over to Nightcrawler's knocked out body. He never thought of Nightcrawler as over confident, but apparently all it took was moving slow and taking a few hits intentionally. He took out another pack of cards before walking away and thinking "Was it always dis simple?"

Next up was Jubilee. As he traveled through the vents and ceilings he found Storm in the kitchen before encountering Jubilee in the adjacent hallway. He shot out of the vents and knocked out Jubilee with a strike from his still attached prison bracer. He took her limp body and held it in front of him as a shield. He walked over to the kitchen to find Storm. She froze as she couldn't think of a way to attack Gambit without hurting Jubilee in the process. Gambit flung two cards one towards her and one above. She dodged one but the other set apart a hanging light that fell towards Storm. He threw two more Cards her way, she managed to dodge the falling fixture, and one of the cards before getting hit with the second. This stunned her and before she knew it Gambit had thrown Jubilee towards her. As she caught Jubilee she was hit in the head by the bracer. Now only Cyclops and Rogue remained.

He found Cyclops in the meeting room overlooking some files. He knocked him out similar to how he attacked Jubilee from above with surprise. Gambit wondered why even Cyclops wasn't prepared for his arrival. Surely by now either the surveillance, the missing team members, or Xavier himself would have alerted him. With everyone but Rogue defeated he pleasantly walked towards Xavier's room. He ran into Rogue on the way. She was immediately furious and flew towards him at full speed. Gambit dodged and grazed his hand along her bottom as she flew past. She began to glow like never before as her entire garment was ignited. A rather large explosion occurred, but Gambit was sure it would only knock Rogue unconscious nothing more. Gambit started walking towards Xavier's room again before he stood and contemplated the recent occurrences.

He had just defeated the entire team of Xmen by himself. Not even in his dreams would he think he could do something like that. If there was one thing Gambit was sure of, it was his inability to compete with the rest of the team. Surely some other person or group would have defeated them by now if it was this easy. Maybe it was because Gambit wasn't there to help them. He laughed off the thought before becoming deeply concerned. Maybe this really was all a dream. Not just his victories but everything seemed a bit off, although he couldn't quite grasp what enough to express it in conscious thought. Everything just felt overwhelming simple, lacking detail. Hell he hadn't even heard any of his team members speak words that night. If Xavier couldn't penetrate Gambit's conscious mind, maybe he could at minimum affect his dreams. He started pinching himself, when that didn't work he started throwing a tantrum finally just screaming as loud as he could. After calming down a bit he just repeatedly rammed his head into a wall. Before he could hurt himself too much he finally got the perfect idea. The one thing that always woke him up from any dream: his own death. Moments before dying the adrenaline rush would kick-start his body and force him awake. He crumpled up a card and held it close to his mouth. He paused before igniting it and thought "what if this dis really be real and Professor just controllin erryone and making them lose?". He thought of recent poker games "just another all-in" Gambit said before igniting the card chewing once and swallowing. He had never tasted an ignited object before, surprisingly it tasted like candy.


	4. Chapter 4: The Afterlife

Gambit awoke in his room. It was quite and dark, just like before he went to sleep. He started to laugh.

His laugh was interrupted by blaring alarms. He quickly got up and looked outside his window and saw an uproar throughout the campus. "People just always gotta be flippin out after Gambit beat em in an all-in."

He ignited his window and it exploded just enough to break the metal bars surrounding it to produce a nice human sized hole. Instead of jumping through however Gambit took off his shirt, grabbed his pole and ignited the tip of it, placed the shirt on the tip and launched it flying across campus. Gambit hid his trusted jacket in a pile of cloths in the closet, and then went to his door and opened it just enough to check if anyone was nearby. No one was around yet, unsurprising since Gambit lived in a fairly unoccupied dormitory. Gambit swiftly opened the door, then closed it locking it behind him. He walked towards his neighboring door, put his ear up against it. No sounds came from inside whatsoever, but the door was locked. He grabbed a pin from his pocket and picked the lock. He locked the door behind him and hid under the bed. He reflected on his lectures in his thief guild. "Sometimes da simplest place to hide be the best". "No one be expectin a grown man to be hidin unda a bed." He lied there thinking about what he had on him. Just two decks of cards, his pole now folded, his wallet, and a few pins. He took out a deck and started to play solitaire. At first there wasn't enough light from the room's windows to see the cards, but his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness.

After a few minutes Gambit paused his game as he heard a group storming through the hall and his door being busted open. He could just barely make out Wolverine's obnoxious sniffling and hear him say "Bub jumped out the window!" before hearing two wushes fly out the window and two more people climb out of it. A fifth person walked out the room and ran through the halls. Solitaire grew boring so he played a few hands of poker against himself. About half an hour later he could hear an uncountable number of footsteps running around his floor. Eventually one of them knocked on the door of the room he was in. The door was kicked in and the light coming from the hall hurt Gambit's eyes. By looking at the feet of the intruder he could make out that he was a fairly young man, likely one of the older students. The man walked inside, checked the bathroom and then ran out leaving the door ajar. Gambit watched as dozens of people ran through and fro across the entrance to the doorway in a rush. The light was a little annoying but Gambit continued a few more games of poker.

After about an hour passed, the halls in his dormitory grew silent. He crawled out from under the bed. He took a piss in the bathroom and drank as much water as he could from the faucet. He turned on the exhaust in the bathroom and found the frame to the exhaust towards the roof of the bathroom. The frame was just enough to fit a Gambit. He pried off the frame, crawled inside and closed the frame behind him. A fan was behind him on and sucking out the air from him and the bathroom. It was about time for the sun to rise so Gambit decided to take a nap. "It be prison all ova again..."

He woke up to hear a very heavy man enter the room. He could hear the man's distinct obnoxious sniffs. Gambit made sure not to make even the slightest sound. The bathroom exhaust helped eclipse the sounds he couldn't help making but Gambit worried about the oddity of a bathroom exhaust being on in a vacant room. A few moments later the man walked out of the room after slapping the wall in frustration. "Good thing Wolverine aint no detective." Gambit went back to sleep when he could no longer hear footsteps.

Gambit woke up and yawned. By his calculations it should be about 2pm in the afternoon. He crawled out of the exhaust took another piss and drank as much water as he could. He made sure to not leave the bathroom, he didn't want his scent to linger in the other room which was farther from the exhaust. Gambit sat on the edge of the bathtub daydreaming. He thought about how he would leave and he began to already feel homesick. He thought about what everyone thought about him when he had gotten inside of Xavier's head. The only thoughts that really bothered him was Rogue's. Every time Rogue saved him in battle or defended him when he would get harassed he always felt emasculated. Xavier solidified his worst fears, that the dominant feeling Rogue felt for him was pity. Strangely Gambit found himself feeling better by thinking of Wolverine. He liked how Wolverine was always straight forward, he never hid his opinion of anyone, especially Gambit. He also liked that Wolverine was one of the few people who never felt guarded around him. Maybe it was because Wolverine didn't have any possessions for a thief to steal, and he would simply regenerate any back-stabs against him. Gambit's thoughts drifted toward who he had betrayed. Theives he left behind during heists, comrades he abandoned in terrifying battles, and probably worst of all the race of Morlocks he helped massacre. His thoughts drifting towards the depressing, Gambit decided to crawl back into the exhaust and try to sleep once again.

He awoke again at night. He crawled out of the exhaust and checked the clock in the other room. It was 12:04 am. He looked outside the window, it seemed the mansion was a bit too active still, as people appeared to still be running around looking for clues. Gambit sighed and went back to the bathroom. He hated this feeling of being trapped, but he thought if it wasn't for the hate maybe he would have never escaped from his past prison sentences. He wanted to exercise, to jump, dash, sprint, and flip, but he feared the noise it would create. He was also starving. He went back into the room and looked for food. All he could find was stale Oreos thrown out in the trash. He thought about all the preservatives inside an Oreo, how at least in appearance they seemed perfectly fine although stale. He paced around the room for a few more minutes before he couldn't resist. After the first Oreo he found that he couldn't stop. The third of the Oreo box that was in the trash had been thoroughly devoured. Gambit felt sick to his stomach, "Oreos don't make good dinner." After another hour he finally crawled back into the exhaust. He tried to go sleep but couldn't and instead fantasized about past and possible future heists. He felt dirty about how much he enjoyed thinking about the topic, but he couldn't get his mind off of them. Eventually though he did fall asleep.

He awoke and checked the clock once again. 3pm in the afternoon. His stomach began to hurt from lack of excretion but he knew he had to hold it in. He spent the rest of the day doing nothing but playing card games with himself. At 11pm he once again looked out the window. There was no one searching but a few too many people going about their nightly activities. So he then looked at the cloths throughout the room. He needed something inconspicuous. He was already wearing jeans, but he was shirtless. The problem was though that this was a girl's room. Thankfully the girl wasn't too petite and he found a plain white shirt that just managed to stretch to fill his frame. He looked in the mirror at his muscles barely fitting inside the very stretched shirt. He couldn't help but think he might look a bit too sexualized and likely would stick out in any crowd. However, there wasn't another shirt larger. After more idling it was finally 3am. Gambit looked out the window and saw no one nearby. He walked out of the room, back to his, and jumped out his already broken window. By bad habit he knew very well where the blind spots in the mansion's security were. It was a simple task to simply hop the fence and escape. "Who be searchin unda they nose fo 3 days straight."

He walked through the streets of the suburbs near the mansion. He made sure to avoid everyone he came across. It took awhile, and it was painfully chilly, but eventually he found a car that he could pick and jump start. As he drove he thought about how cerebro worked "all he gotta do is search for "most badass eyes in the world" and the second someone sees em I'm caught". The car's tank was half full and Gambit was far too worried of anyone noticing him to try for a gas station. He drove as far as he could with the gas he had and arrived in the middle of a populous and urban city. Thoughts of his lectures came again "hidin in the crowd be safer than hidin in the forest".

The city was indeed very crowded in the afternoon. He made sure to always look down and squint while he walked to hide his eyes. The first thing Gambit did though was find a clothing store and steal a shirt. Sure he had the money to pay for it but he feared the eye contact. Homeless as a child, Gambit found digging through the trash for food and drinks very nostalgic. "Heh tastes way betta than when Gambit be a kid" he thought as he ate a half eaten hamburger "dem chemicals be perservin tha flavor".

As night approached Gambit wanted nothing more than to go to a bar to relax and couldn't resist when he saw the sign for "Patty's rub". He sat down at the crowded bar, and noticed two bartenders and two men arguing about something. "That's disgusting I would never drug the waittress" "Charlie you've done who knows what already how can we think you wouldn't" "You know Charlie, if you were to praise jesus christ right now I would believe you" "What that's absurd there are plenty of jesus praisers in prisons for sexual assault" "name one!" "What about all those priests?" "That doesn't make sense for right now. They didn't use drugs and thats what this is about" "Mac are you serious right now?" "Did you really just say that molesting kids is okay if you don't use drugs?" "Look guys look, maybe, just maybe, it was the kids that came onto the priests how can we be sure if there were no drugs involved". Gambit interrupts "could I be gettin some beer over here?" The bartenders continue to argue with each other for a few more minutes and Gambit begins to zone out. Suddenly he hears a woman say "So what do you want?" Gambit looks forward and finds a nice bosom in his face. By bad habit he looks up to put a face to the bosoms. He sees a decently attractive blonde girl that reminds him of an ostrage. He asks her for a glass of water and a beer. She however continues to stare at him. Gambit sighs and remembers how he has this affect on women. However, he begins to notice the bar becoming more and more silent. He looks around and everyone seems frozen in place. As he looks back at the bartender she aims a shotgun at him. Gambit darts behind another man as the shotgun fires and he finds himself covered in another's blood. The rest of the bar becomes unfrozen one by one as people hurl themselves toward Gambit. He looks behind him to find the door too has people storming through it towards him. Another shotgun blast fires and another man nearby Gambit collapses in a pool of blood. Gambit jumps toward the wall, kicks off of it and steps on to a pillar on the ceiling while throwing an ignited card at the ceiling creating a hole. Another shotgun blast shatters the pillar as Gambit jumps off of it and exits the building through the ceiling. He sees the pillar collapse and fall onto two strangers. He makes a run for it darting from ceiling to ceiling. He can hear a few gunshots coming from the streets but he isn't worried about getting shot at this distance. After a few blocks of ceiling hoping he finds a relatively quite alley way with a dumpster. He opens the dumpster and sits patiently. A shard of glass in the dumpster penetrates his leg and the smell of gunpowder, rot and blood surrounds him. "Is da professor always usin cerebro?" "Na... theres the other psychics maybe they be cyclin". He stays in the dumpster for hours, shivering from the adrenaline rush.

The next day Gambit acts like an untouchable. He makes sure to never look anyone in the eyes, and even though it hurts his leg he tries not to limp or be otherwise noticeable. He steals a pair of sunglasses hanging from a woman's purse. He also finds a razor and some scissors and shaves his head. He spends the next few weeks slowly traveling through the country. He can at least shop now thanks to the sun glasses, but as he sleeps under bridges he finds himself thinking nothing but "Gambit just wanna go home..."


	5. Chapter 5: Helmet Man

Chapter 5: Helmet Man

Magnanimous Construction has become a large highly profitable business, all thanks to their CEO/designer/foreman/bulldozer Maximus Eisenhardt otherwise known as Magneto. However, Mr. Eisenhardt has been struggling with quite the troublesome problem lately. Because of Magnanimous's success, he now lives in an unmanageably large estate. Though he is a man who appreciates solitude the massive scale of his estate has forced his hand into hiring a janitor.

Three haggard men stand in line wearing janitor apparel equipped with mop and bucket. The left-most man is pale, has a thick beard, completely bald, and wears thick sunglasses though he is indoors. The middle man has white hair, wears a cap and although his head is always down and he doesn't talk much, somehow appears confident in his stature, his white hair showcasing his likely experience and age. The final man although clean shaven, seems the most worn down, balding quite heavily with greying hair.

"So, only three men have the stomach for my estate it seems. I was expecting more, is my reputation that intimidating?" He asks the man standing left-most in the line. The aspiring janitor doesn't say a word responding only with an anxious swallow.

"Come" The master walks calmly to a dirty bedroom, and the trio follow, remaining in formation. Eisenhardt gestures his hand towards the room, stares at the left-most gentleman and says "impress me".

The bald bearded man walks calmly into the room. He sighs as he inspects his task. He suddenly leaps into action mopping and moving things as if he were dancing. He notices a web on the ceiling, too high to reach, or jump to. But he leaps does a front flip and mops away the web as if it was nothing. A few more minutes pass until the master tells him to stop. The bald bearded man walks back into his left most position.

Eisenhardt asks "Are you a mutant?"  
"Ya I be a mutant." "Is that why you wear sunglasses?" "Yep"  
The sunglasses levitate off his face, and the bald bearded man shuts his eyes and moans with agony. "My eyes be sensitive!" "Oh? Do they do anything else?"  
"No... but I be pretty good at jumpin around" The master says nothing eyeing him suspiciously. "I used to work in da circus. But no body wants to see me jumpin around no more with all da really special mutants errywhere."  
"Hmm... I see. Well you are with your brothers here, feel free to wear those gaudy glasses."  
"Thank ye sir"

The master moves onto the cap wearing middle man. "There's still quite a bit of cleaning left to do in this room."  
The middle man smirks "I can do it in 2 seconds."  
The master raises an eyebrow but before he can say anything nothing is left of the middle man but a silver blur and a cap slowly falling. "PIETRO YOU-!" By the time the master looks at the sullied room, its already cleaned. When he looks back at the other aspiring servants the white haired man returns with a smirk remaining on his face as he adjusts his hat. Before the master can think laughter fills the room as Magneto is slapped across the face followed by the buttocks and the silver blur vanishes out of sight.  
The master can do nothing but grumble as he attempts to regain his composure.

After an eon of tension he turns to the final man. "So, I don't quite have another room for you to be tested on, how about you inspire me through rapport?" "Uh... I'm just normal man... I don't know if I can compete."  
"I appreciate your humbleness, but there must be something impressive about you. Please elaborate."  
"Well, I've been a janitor for several decades now. I like the peaceful and simple life style it brings. But, my daughter is going through university now and my last employer isn't able to offer the... adequate compensation that I think a janitor as experienced as me deserves."  
"Oh deserves huh?"  
The first man looks over and spots a large white S on the back of Magneto's cardigan, but makes no mention of it.  
"Uh... I'm sorry about this sir, but he said he would pay for my girl's tuition" The counterfeit janitor spits on Magnetos face, as the same laughter once again fills the halls and a white blur carries the spitter out of sight.

Magneto groans as he wipes the spit off his face. The bald bearded man isn't sure, but he thinks the ground may have shook momentarily.

"Well... don't disappoint me." says Eisenhardt as he withdraws an envelope and hands it to the remaining man.

"Yes sir!" says the bald man enthusiastically.

"Oh and what's your name?"

"Charles"

Magneto grins as he walks away. "Are all Charles that bald" he jokes as he walks away.

Ninety-four hallways, eighty-nine rooms, and six gigantic dining rooms to maintain every day would be a nearly impossible task for a normal person, but having a penchant for acrobatics is enough to keep Charles just barely afloat.

Eisenhardt keeps to himself with a steady routine. Breakfast, construction, lunch, construction, secretive plotting, and finally dinner with a book. Charle's is waiting for the right time to confront his master, but the right time refuses to present itself. He always watches, sometimes using dubious covert means, that is except when its plotting time, when Magneto disappears into a room that seems to only be used for this purpose and shuts the door. But after seventy two days of being one of the highest paid janitors in the country Charles becomes fed up.

"Master, I uh..." he says as he stumbles into the plotting room.

"WHAT ARE DOING HERE I TOLD YOU TO NEVER ENTER THIS ROOM!" says Magneto as he seems to be doing nothing but grumbling at an antique globe.

"I uh... do you always wear that helmet when you are in here?"

"WHAT? If you weren't so effective I would have encased you in steel and thrown you into the bottom of the ocean just now!"

"Can you please just answer sir. Please"

"YES I DO WEAR IT WHEN IM I'M IN THIS ROOM, ALWAYS, NOW LEAVE!"

"God fuckin damn it. I been working here for seventy two god dang days and I cuda jus come here da first day and... aggg"

Magneto glares angrily about to attack but notices something is amiss.

Charles takes off his sunglasses and glares with his glowing black and red eyes.

"Gambit be the one who been workin fo you dis whole time!"

"WHY? Wait... I recall hearing some very negative gossip about what you did to your so called friends"

"Gambit didn't do nothin, its all Xavier, Gambit came here to talk bout it"

"Tarnishing my friends name is no small matter LeBeau"

"Been waitin months fo you to put on dat dang helmet, just hear Gambit out."

"You were paid for your services, I owe you no pleasantries."

"Eva wonda why your plans neva seem to work out when Xavier don't like em?"

"Well... I trust him. He could destroy my mind any second I do not wear this helmet and he chooses not to."

"Dats not true. Erm... how do I explain dis. Its like you built a... whats da word... resistance to em? You been hangin around him when he was a kid, when his powers weren't so good, so you have built some resistance, and he can't mess with you that well cause of it, only a little."

"You mean my interaction with him in his stumbling youth acted like a vaccine and so he can only manipulate me in the subtlest of ways?"

"Ya!"

"Well... that does explain how I always seem to fall just short so often... Wait, did you call upon Pietro to rig my hiring in your favor?"

"Nope"

"All right well, let's talk."


	6. Chapter 6: Another Helmet Man

Gambit Chapter 6: Another Helmet Man

The bar was quite, contained, and peaceful, until a man named Cain Marko shoved the bouncer out of the way and barely managed to fit through the door.

"Whatcha lookin at!" grumbled Cain as he sat onto a bar stool and ordered a pitcher of his special rum. The people sitting near him nervously walked away as the strength of the drink set their noses on fire.

"Hah"

He had come to the bar enough that he knew they walked away because of the drink and not because of him directly. A few broken teeth and glasses filled with tears was all it took to clarify it for him.

Suddenly, a bald man with a beard and sunglasses sat next to him.

"Whatcha want? I don't bend that way."

"G-.. I don't either pal."

"Well whatcha want?"

"You seem to be havin a bad day huh?"

"Whats it to ya?"

"I need a favour only you can help me wit"

"Hah I get offers like this all the time, and you don't look like you got the money to compete... pal."

"Well, G-... I'll do a favour fo you jus say so"

"I want that girl over there"

"Well... ya try askin? Dont she wanna jump yo bones naturally? Ya been gettin lucky before here"

"The hell ya stalkin me?"

"Na just similar taste in bars"

"Well whatcha ya orderin?"

The bald man calls to the bartender and points to the rum Cain is drinking then forms his hand into a shot glass sized object. The bartender looks back with shock but eventually starts making the drink.

"Hahahaha that's a first!" says Cain suddenly in a jolly mood.

The bartender cautiously pours the drink into a shot glass and presents it to the bald man.

"Cajuns handle der liquor!" says the bald man as he gulps it down. He groans and his head falls into his arms as he moans unable to hide his pain.

"Hahahahahahaha" laughs the giant as he pats the cajun on the shoulder.

After an indiscernible amount of time the cajun picks his head up and proclaims "Lets steal you dat girl!"

Never before has the Cajun been so glad that his mutant powers strangely include seduction. He couldn't quite put a sentence together but somehow the girl was talking to his new giant friend alone in the corner of the bar. Suddenly though the giant walks back to his new cajun friend.

"Wha happen?"

"Eh shes not mah type."

"Whattt its kay, jus tell Gamb-... me"

"I'm serious... shes... kinda dumb"

"Wha... you like da smarties?"

"Well I aint gonna find no one tougher than me, they gotta be impressive somehow!"

"Dang...das uh... uh..."

"Surprising?"

"Ya!"

"Well, you still earned a favour what is it?"

"Can you uh... put on dat helmet you got?"

"What helmet? I don't need helmets!"

"Ya know... dat special one..."

"...Oh... the hell, you sure your not queer?"

"Ya jus.. jus.. put it on"

"Alright... well its in my trunk."

"Da hell you bring it wit you errywhere?"

"Sometimes people piss me off"

"gotcha"

They walk to his large convertible with no ceiling as the cajun continues to stumble. Once they sit inside the giant puts on his helmet.

"Now what?"

"Finally! Listen I be Gambit!"

"Oh right... don't you owe me some money from a card game? Is that what's this is about?"

"No, you be ownin Gambit money. Gambit don't lose at cards. But dis aint bout that."

"Oh... ya... now I remember... But wait... you were stalkin me!"

"Well... Gambit was lookin fo ya in da town and just happen to see ya at dis bar first."

The giant glares, violated.

"Na, Gambit went to da bar all on his own ya jus happen ta come in one day, promise"

"Aint you a thief!"

"Dat don't make gambit a liar!"

"...well... how'd ya like my drink?"

Gambit looks around nervously looking for the right answer.

"Hahahahaha, only Juggernaut can handle that shit bitch" as the giant nearly knocks out Gambit with a pat on the head.

"Hah well... uh...listen... erm... your brother uh... be plottin"

"Oh? Hahaha, Looks like Charles finally gonna get what's comin to him!"


	7. Chapter 7: The End

The End

The X-Men are having a night time barbecue for various reasons. Cyclops wants to show off his cooking skills. Storm and Rogue just enjoy the social interaction. Jubilee and Beast want to test Cyclops' cooking might. And finally Wolverine is there for the beers. Midway through cooking his first batch of beef patties, chicken, and hot dogs, Cyclops notices an object in the air.

As he looks up he can't quite tell what it is, but he notices its heading straight for his grill. He tries to move his grill out of the way and starts shouting incoherently to the rest of the X-Men. But by the time he looks up again its too late as a huge mass of muscle wearing what appears to be metal armor crashes down directly on top of the grill. "ITS THE JUGGERNAUT BITCHES!"

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" yells Cyclops as he picks himself up off the ground.

"Hah, dumbass, I'm nothing but a distraction!"

"From what?" replies a confused Cyclops.

"Oh... right I'm not supposed to tell you."

"You are welcome to our barbecue Cain, although, we will have to acquire a new grill." says Beast.

Juggernaut just stands in confusion.

"Cmon, Juggernaut I thought we were friends now. Remember that time we played video games together?" says Jubilee

"You blew up my frollic-station 2!" replied Juggernaut

"It was an accident!" she says before murmuring "but you sucked at all the games anyway..." to herself.

"Is that what this is about Cain? Video games?" asks Cyclops

"Uh... no?" replies Juggernaut, still unsure of what to do.

"Are you just looking for a fight?" asks Rogue already in combat stance. Wolverine manages to raise an eyebrow while he sits on his lawn chair and reaches for more beer.

"Ya! But I'm not supposed to beat you guys up too bad!"

"Whoever you are working for you are doing a poor job, at this point why not just tell us everything?" asks Storm

"God damn it!" murmurs Juggernaut as he begins to sulk in confusion.

Cyclops sighs as everyone looks at each other in confusion.

"Why not just forcefully remove his helmet and have Charles examine his mind directly?" says a floating figure in the sky with a large cape and colourful costume.

"MAGNETO! Did the professor ask you to help us deal with this?" asks Cyclops.

"No, quite the opposite" replies Magneto as he launches their dinner table into Rogue slamming her into a nearby building. Juggernaut takes the queue and grabs Cyclops and throws him across the lawn as he yells "I BET YOUR COOKING SUCKS!"

Storm and Jubilee begin to fire projectiles at Magneto while Beast jumps on Juggernaut's back attempting to get through his helmet. He claws at one of ten metal clips until it opens. However, as soon as he does so it floats back into place and Magneto chuckles to himself. Juggernaut then finally gets a hold of Beast and throws him across the lawn next to Cyclops who has managed to stand and regain composure.

"Wolverine why are you just sitting there!?" yells Cyclops.

Wolverine takes another sip before replying "Hey bub, Magneto's here. Watching is better than being flung to another continent all right."

"Looks like you finally learned your lesson huh Wolverine." says Magneto casually as his magnetic sphere protects him from Storm and Jubilees projectiles.

Cyclops blasts at Juggernaut's helmet but it automatically readjusts as if nothing happened.

"Any plan?" asks Beast to Cyclops, but Cyclops can only reply with grunting noises as he blasts at Magneto, which does nothing but get defected by his protective sphere causing another chuckle from Magneto.

"GET EM TOGETHER GUYS!" yells Rogue as she flies toward Magneto full speed. Cyclops, Storm, and Jubilee, then blast Magneto all together. As Rogue and the projectiles simultaneously hit his sphere Magneto stops chuckling. However, the chuckling resumes when he sees Juggernaut block the projectiles, and punch Rogue sending her into another building.

"Professor what do these guys want!?" asks Cyclops. "I'm not exactly certain myself..." replies the Professor telepathically. "Juggernaut is here so maybe he's mad at you again. Are you somewhere safe Professor?" "Of course, I went to the new safety room underground." "Professor, what do we do?" "I... am not sure... however I am searching for allies... they should arrive shortly, just stay safe until then." The conversation is broadcasted to the rest of the X-Men there.

Juggernaut charges toward Cyclops and Beast but they easily dodge out of the way. Cyclops beams at Juggernaut's helmet as Beast once again jumps on his back.

"Aggg, what's taking him so long!? This is getting annoying!" yells Juggernaut in frustration.

Magneto sighs and replies "I believe it would be best if you kept your mouth shut for the remainder of this excursion."

"NO ONE TELLS JUGGERNAUT TO SHUT UP BITCH!" yells Juggernaut as he throws Beast into Magneto. Magneto uses the dining table to swat Beast away as he sighs once more.

Xavier sits in a quite room deep underground with only one entrance as he watches a large multi-monitor screen while he concentrates on finding allies to assist his team.

He hears a few loud pops behind him as the door opens to reveal a bald bearded man with sunglasses on and a janitors outfit.

"Ya know, you should pay your janitors a bit more, or they might get disgruntled and want to kill you-"

"Gambit... so this was your doing!"

"-Especially if ya ruined their rep and tried to kill em."

"How did you get in here? This room is new!"

"Man maybe yo detective skills are lackin cause you relying on yo powers too much cause I jus told ya! Gambit been workin here a few weeks now."

Xavier remains silent and terrified.

"I'm guessin you been readin brains all ova da world lookin for me, so many ya forgot to look right unda yo nose. Gambit pretty good at disguisin too huh?"

"Are-are... you going to kill me?"

Gambit slowly walks closer as Xavier's shirt begins to be covered with sweat. An eerie aroma fills the room as Xavier's pants become soiled.

Rogue gets swatted by Magneto into Juggernaut, who punches her back at Magneto, who swats her again as he dodges a few lightning bolts. The swatting concludes when Juggernaut fails to knock her back and she flies away back towards her team.

"Hah maybe now you will know your place baphoon." murmurs Magneto

"What'cha just say bitch!? Say it to my face!" yells Juggernaut

"Maybe after we are finished here..." replies Magneto before whispering "although this is quite the effective pairing" to himself.

An explosion erupts from the ground as a man in a janitors uniform leaps out. He looks around before locking eyes with Rogue.

"GAMBIT!?" screams Rogue.

"GET THAT FUCKER!" yells Cyclops as he fires a laser toward him. The laser is deflected by Magneto's sphere which now encompasses both him and Gambit.

"So I take it you've done what we came here for?" asks Magneto before he turns to focus on deflecting a rage filled lightning blast from Storm.

"Gambit did what he came here for... sorry bout dis its nothin personal" says Gambit as he swiftly takes off Magneto's helmet.

Magneto's eyes slowly close before suddenly reopening. Juggernaut's helmet instantly flies off and he collapses to the ground screaming in pain before finally going unconscious.

"Don't attack him!" says Xavier telepathically to his subordinates as he lowers Magneto's shield.

"Well... this barbecue was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be..." says Wolverine as he takes another sip of his beer.

At long last, after what felt like an eternity Gambit is back in the X-Mansion with his own room. Sighing with relief he slowly shaves his beard. Maybe with time, Rogue will trust him again, as will the rest of the X-Men. He thinks Logan is probably the first one he should talk to once Xavier lives up to his part of the bargain and talks with the X-Men in earnest. After his beard is finally fully shaven he looks at himself in the mirror and cries tears of release. He has the best shower he has ever had in his life, and plays around with a few hats to try to make up for his still bald head. He lays in bed and drifts into his thoughts and fantasies...  
"Maybe Beast can make somthin fo Gambit's hair to grow fasta"  
"Wonda if Gambit can still beat Jubilee in that game she plays..." "Wonda if Logan's got any beers to share..."  
"Gambit shud take Rogue out to bowlin maybe... or maybe somethin relaxin like da beach... ya... bikinis..."  
and eventually he falls asleep.

Gambit wakes up in another empty room with a contraption similar to the one in his long ago dream, but a lot tighter on the wrists. He panics until he finds his friend Logan staring at nothing sitting across from him in a chair with a table filled with a massive amount of empty alcohol bottles.

"Tell Gambit dis jus a dream brotha..."

Logan stirs from his slump and replies "you shuda just killed him bub".

"Gambit neva cared about what da Professor did. Gambit jus wanted to go back to da happy days. Gambit..." he can't finish his sentence as tears swell in his eyes.

"Its not very convincing comin from a guy who just betrayed his new friends for his old ones... you've betrayed quite a few friends in your time you know..."

"Wha... wha happened to dem?"

"Juggs in permanent mental stasis underground near here, probably forever this time. Prof tried to change Magneto's memories but it didn't turn out well and now the guy just won't wake up."

"Did ya know all about da Professor this whole time... wha hes been doin?"

"Yep..."

"Why he tell ya... why he let you stay?"

"I dunno, maybe its cause I give less of a shit? Or I'm more trustable? Maybe... well... just more useful?"

"Just a quick slice" says Wolverine as he unsheaths his right hand's blades and starts walking toward him.

"Gambit glad its you..."

Wolverine places his left hand on Gambit's shoulder and puts his right hand near Gambit's chest, near the heart.

"Any last words?"

"Maybe a bit a beer will help... anythin new?"

"Nope just the same old shit" says Logan as he walks back to the table and grabs a beer. He places the beer on Gambits lips and lets him chug the entire bottle. He throws it back toward the pile. A few bottles hit the floor and break. "Sorry.. somethings in my eye..."

Logan places his left hand on Gambit's shoulder. His right hand over Gambit's heart. Blood trickles down Logan's arm as Remy Etienne LeBeau's eyes slowly close. 


End file.
